Megabus

Megabus is a British "no-frills" intercity bus service run by Stagecoach. The services began in August 2003.

Prices are advertised as starting at UK£1, with a 50p booking fee. Megabus follows the demand management model typically used by low-cost airlines where the lowest fares are offered to those who book early or on less popular journeys.

The company has started a price war with rivals, notably Scottish Citylink and National Express, who lowered some pre-booked tickets to £1 in Autumn 2004.

Tickets must be purchased in advance from their website, passengers show the driver a reference number when they board. It is not possible to buy a ticket on the bus. Tickets can be paid for in Pound Sterling, Euros, or United States dollars.

Megabus announced, on October 6 2004, that they have carried more than one million passengers.

Fleet

Initially, most of the routes used buses designed for short local public transport journeys and which had no toilet or luggage space, and each passenger is only allowed one bag. Toilets have been added to the fleet, enabling Megabus to eliminate toilet stops. These double decker buses are 94-seat tri-axle Leyland Olympians built for service with Hong Kong Citybus in 1990/1991. Stagecoach purchased Citybus in March 1999 but sold the company in 2003 after the group hit financial difficulties, the batch of Olympians used for Megabus remained in Stagecoach ownership following the divestment. These powerful Cummins engined Olympians soon became the trademark of the fleet in their dark blue livery with huge Megabus wording and logos adorning almost every available part of the bodyside. Newer 'high-frills' bendy coaches, which do have toilets and reclining seats, were used for the longer journeys between London and Scotland, but these were replaced early in 2005.

In summer 2004, Stagecoach received a batch of Neoplan Skyliners for use on the Oxford Tube service. This displaced a number of 68 seat five-year old double deck Jonckheere bodied MAN coaches, some of which went into service with Megabus on cross-border services and on services wholly within Scotland.

Stagecoach ordered another batch of Neoplan Skyliners in 2004, which went into service on Megabus in early 2005. These replaced the articulated coaches used on services between London and Scotland, and also Olympians on some of the other longer distance services. This meant that Olympians were mainly confined to the shorter distance routes in southern England.

Routes

Services from London to Oxford commenced on August 4 2003, and routes from Edinburgh-Glasgow, Edinburgh-Perth and Glasgow-Dundee were added one month later. During November 2003 routes between Manchester-Liverpool and Manchester-Leeds were added, these ceased on June 27 2004 and October 3 2004 respectively. The most significant development of the megabus network to date came on March 1 2004 when a whole network of routes from Greenline Coach Station in Victoria, London were added, These new services served Brighton, Portsmouth, Southampton, Bournemouth, Bristol, Exeter, Plymouth, Cardiff, Swansea and Birmingham.

On September 6 2004, Stagecoach took over the Motorvator coach service between Edinburgh and Glasgow, selling a number of seats per journey through the Megabus site (the remainder being available without booking in advance, at regular fares). This enabled Stagecoach to cancel the dedicated Megabus service between the two cities. On November 15 2004, the Oxford to London service was replaced in a similar manner by seats on the Oxford Tube.

On June 28 2004 routes from London to Milton Keynes, Leicester, Chesterfield, Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester and Glasgow were added and within two months these were followed by the expansion of the Scottish routes to include Aberdeen and Inverness.

Stagecoach lost the contract to run the National Express route between Gloucester, Cheltenham and London, prompting Stagecoach to introduce Megabus between Cheltenham, Gloucester and London from September 5 2004.

Routes between London and Liverpool, and London and Newcastle started on October 10 2004.

From December 6 2004, the Megabus service between Cheltenham, Gloucester and London also called at Swindon.

On January 31 2005, the Stagecoach Express service X5 between Oxford and Cambridge became part of the Megabus network, selling a number of seats per journey in the same way as the Oxford Tube and Motorvator.

From April 18 2005, Nottingham, Worthing and Winchester were added to the network (by slight extensions/modifications to existing routes), however rationalisation of the rest of the network also took place. In particular, some early morning and late evening services were withdrawn.

From June 13 2005, the Liverpool to London service called additionally at Stoke-on-Trent and a new service was introduced between Coventry and London. However, the London-Cardiff-Swansea service was withdrawn between Cardiff and Swansea.

External links

• Official Site (http://www.megabus.com/)
• BBC News Online articles [1] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3522239.stm) [2] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3191169.stm)